NEWSTRACK
SUMMER 2008
Newstrack is the magazine of Derwent Valley Orienteers.
Editor: Neil Forrest, 40 Riber View Close, Tansley, Matlock, Derbyshire.
DE4 5HB. Tel. 01629 583899. e.mail : neil.forrest899@btinternet.com
Editors Opener.
Past mid summer already and as usual it does not feel like it but nice temperatures for a spot of vigorous orienteering. Some of the club’s thermo-philes are in Portugal for the World Masters, others are off to multi-day events in France and Slovenia. Newstrack wishes them good runs and hopes for future reporting back.
Besides the obvious sporting role of a club it can also provide a structure for sociability in your chosen activity. Orienteering by its nature tends to be an individualistic activity and if you want you can pursue the sport as a very committed loner. However DVO likes to encourage all its members to link up with others to get to know them and what is going on. In this issue of Newstrack there is a feature by Mike Godfree about the summer programme of Wednesday night training runs which besides offering a get fitter opportunity is an enjoyable social occasion. Other ways to meet club members include coming along to Open Meetings, entering the Club Champs. – not as daunting as the title suggests, turning up at the club tent at major and multi-day events, or just making a point of speaking to someone else in club colours at an event. Of course an excellent way to engage with the club is to help with events, don’t wait to be asked – volunteer! John Armstrong’s call for officials is in this issue but general helpers are needed at all events.
To assist you in knowing who else is a club member in your locality a list of members with phone number and e.mail ,where known, is enclosed with this issue. This could be an aid to sharing lifts to events . Please report any inaccuracies or changes in this list to the club secretary Helen Finlayson on 01629 583899 or neilen@yahoo.co.uk.
The next issue of Newstrack is planned for early autumn so contributions by mid September please.
Neil Forrest
LOST PROPERTY …… Rescued from the club tent at the JK and still not re-united with their owners are : (1) a stainless steel insulated mug, (2) a Wilf’s Mug. Claims to Mike Godfree please, MikeGodfree@btinternet.com.
SUMMER BARBECUE. After the Matlock Street ‘O’ on Sunday 13 July there will be a barbecue at the MacDonald’s house at the end of Sitch Lane, off Aston Lane, Oker, near Matlock. Bring something to carbonise and a pudding. Bread and salad stuff provided. Car parking off the Gated Road at the end of Aston Lane. Please let Viv. know if you intend to come to give an idea of numbers. Tel. 01629 734307, or r.macdonald@shu.ac.uk.
Thoughts from the Chair – June
Well, a lot has happened since my last scribblings (or the digital equivalent) in March.
Viv and I and a few other DVO stalwarts made the long journey north for the British Championships and relays in Culbin Forest near Forres in April. It was certainly worth the journey with the forest proving just as challenging as we remembered it at the Scottish 6-Day last year - John Duckworth is quoted as saying the String Course was more technical than any East Midlands area! I still find the relay distances a little long but it made for a good full weekend of orienteering. It’s just a shame that it couldn’t have been over a holiday weekend to allow more people to take part.
The JK at Easter saw very mixed weather from the heat of the short race at the University of Surrey in Guildford to the snow of the Long Race on Sunday and Relays on Monday. I didn’t make the relays as I had to fly out to New Zealand but, having seen the pictures, I was not too sorry.
We also made the trip south to Devon for the Tamar Triple, though we missed the first day as we took the opportunity of being in the area to visit the Royal Horticulture Society’s gardens at Rosemore, thus justifying our membership a bit more.
The Club’s events continue to be reasonably well attended and we have a re-vamped summer series of evening and weekend Street-O events – thanks to Val, Ann-Marie and Steve Kimberley for taking this on this year and to the planners/organisers who have volunteered to help. Elsewhere in Newstrack you will see a table of forthcoming events indicating which officials are still required. Alternatively, if you have not undertaken a major role before you may want to volunteer to shadow a named official – something I personally did before becoming an organiser, planner and controller. It goes without saying that our events will not happen without officials and helpers in the various roles and we are perhaps unusual as a sport where the competitors are also officials or helpers – something those coming from other sports often don’t appreciate at first.
The Club’s Annual General Meeting will be held on Wednesday 8th October at Belper Sports Centre at 8.15 pm. Whilst meetings such as this are not everyone’s cup of tea, on this occasion we do need a minimum of 20 members present to enable us to make some changes to the constitution, so please put it in your diaries, PDAs or Outlook Calendars now. We will also be electing a new Chair and it is one of the main opportunities in the year for you to have your say about the running of the club.
Before that, however, there will be an Open Meeting at the National Stone Centre, Wirskworth on Wednesday 9th July – a run for all abilities at 7.00 and the meeting at 8.15 pm.
Like many others in the Club we will be ending the season with a multi-day event – in our case to Slovenia, whilst others are going to Wales, France, Portugal and, no doubt, further afield. The season then gets underway again in September with Kedleston on 7 September and the Club Championships on 28 September at which all Club members are encouraged to run as, given the vagaries of the handicapping, you all have a chance to win; I know, as I did so last year on Stanton Moor! Also, this year there will be six trophies to be won.
Ranald Macdonald
Chair, Derwent Valley Orienteers
DVO Club Championships 2008
Sunday 28th September
Longshaw Estate (subject to final confirmation)
Every year the Club holds a closed event, open to all members, to decide the various Club Champions. However, it is also a chance for everyone to meet up, have a run and then a picnic together, weather permitting.
So, this year there will be six trophies to be won – the first male, female and junior over the line as a result of the handicapping and the fastest male, female and junior on the basis of minutes per kilometre.
There will be three courses – Short, Medium and Long – with the intention that all finishers should cross the line at around 12.00.
Starts will be from about 10.30 but look to the Club website – http://www.dvo.org.uk – for final details.
Please let me know if you would like to run and which distance would suit you best.
Ranald Macdonald (01629 734307 or, preferably, r.macdonald@shu.ac.uk)
Making it easier for us to contact you …
It often proves to be extremely difficult to make contact with Club members to make announcements, including changes to events, or call for helpers. Now that email is more ubiquitous we really do depend on it as the first means of contact with you.
So, if you change your email address, please let the Club Secretary, Helen Finlayson (neilentansley@yahoo.co.uk) know. It would also help if everyone joined the DVO Yahoo group – see the front page of the DVO website (http://www.dvo.org.uk) for the link. However, in most cases do remember to reply to the individual who sent the message and not to the whole list. You should also remember to change your details on the Yahoo group if you change your personal email address.
Ranald Macdonald
Culbin 3, Emit 2, DVO 1
In the triangular match held on the Moray Firth over the weekend of the 19/20 April DVO did battle with Culbin and Emit. Let me explain.
Culbin Forest consists of several miles of lines of sand dunes planted with pines to stabilise them. So mainly runnable forest with little ground cover but some thick patches of green where ground conditions differ. The Scots have always hyped it up and long term orienteers have raved about it ever since the World Champs of 1976. After that, sadly, access for orienteering was withdrawn – the dreaded SSSI for the precious lichen. Dedicated negotiations resulted in our running at Culbin West at last year’s 6 Day; the better eastern half being kept for this year’s British Champs.
Those who ran last year may well have been disappointed by the long dead runs from one line of intricately contoured dunes to the next. The similar forests at Roseisle and Lossie seemed to provide much better competition. But Culbin East proved very different and challenged us all.
Perhaps this was one reason why so few DVO members ventured north this time. There had been controversy over Jon Musgrave’s request as mapper for the maps to be drawn at 1:10,000, enlarged to 1:7,500 for the visually challenged. For such intricately contoured dunes we are thankful that he got his way. There was far greater controversy over controls sited in the green. One point of view was why take competitors in there when there were miles of beautiful runnable but intricately contoured forest. Others felt the challenge of changing pace at the end was exactly what was needed to introduce variety.
Although I didn’t go into the ‘fight’ for the individual I still found the contours challenging. The courses were excellently planned by Steve Nicholson of FVO (former British Elite Squaddie) and controlled by Tony Thornley (formerly DVO) who admitted he had had some challenging moments in the sand dunes.
Most of the UK uses SI electronic punching but some clubs – BAOC, OD and the Scottish National Centre use Emit, hence its choice for BOC. Hired ‘brikkes’ were either old version 2 or the version 3 with its confusing rolling display. The units were firmly attached so at least there was no crawling on the ground as at Warwick for the British Sprint Champs. However, if you are used to the reassuring flash and bleep of SI the silence of Emit is unnerving. Positioning the brikke exactly on the control always seems difficult but with the version 3 should not be necessary as the display shows the control code when close enough. Mike was not alone in being disqualified despite going to the control and thinking that he always checked the display.
Happiest man was probably John Duckworth – injured on the run-in of JK day 1. At slightly less than his usual speed he completed M40L with no ill-effects the next day. Dave Bennett joined the 3 hour club on M21L. Top 10 placings were Doug 8th on M60S, Ann-Marie 6th on W40S, Liz Godfree 4th on W60L.
The relay planning the next day seemed variable with the Women’s Short team having both controls and legs that stayed in the white forest whereas the rest of us all had at least a couple of controls in the fight. In spite of my dire warnings and explanations on the old 6 Day map Derek still managed to trump my 21 minutes split by 8 minutes. And to think that even after that leg I was still with Brian Shaw whose team finished in second place.
A shame that only 15 of us made the trip north. The other 2 large East Midlands clubs, despite roughly similar memberships, had about 30 and 4 members there. The numbers closely paralleling the interest in serious orienteering shown locally and performance at something like the Compass Sport Cup. The great thing about our sport is that you can take part in the national championships in your age group, at least outside of M/W21, and compare yourself with the best of your peers. You can discuss routes and splits with others and with the advent of electronic punching compare with everyone else. So even if your aim is to come within 150% or even 200% of the winner’s time you can achieve a personal ambition. And at the World Masters you can compete with the best in the world for all classes from M/W35 upwards. So why not make a date in your diary for March 14th next year for BOC 2009 and start training now. At least the New Forest will not be so far to travel -though being South Central that will doubtless be Emit again.
Liz Godfree
Editor’s note – ever keen to de-mystify the sport for the uninitiated, the exotically named EMIT ‘Brikke’ is more like a mini tile, held flat in the hand and placed on the control plate. Doesn’t improve your time though.
DVO Wednesday evening runs
To give our usual hosts a break from breakfast with the smell of sweat, Wednesday evenings go walkabout. Why not join us for a sociable run, with chat and drink afterwards. Meet at 7 p.m.
July 9th National Stone Centre, Middleton/Wirksworth*
July 16th Sue & Andy Jackson approx 400m past the Bottle Kiln on the A609 out of Ilkeston on the north side of the road (139, High Lane West, West Hallam, grid ref 431420)
July 23rd Godfree’s. Highfields, Mapleton Road, Ashbourne DE6 2AA, opposite Tissington Trail Cycle Hire car park.
July 30th Crich Market Place, Street Score event, mass start 7:15 for a one hour score
August 6th Etwall, Scout Hut opposite the end of Lawn Avenue. try DE65 6JB (This year a conventional run not an event)
August 13th Alex & Evelyn Ross, 51 Yokecliffe Drive, Wirksworth
From mini-roundabout approaching town centre from Duffield, turn left (Summer Lane), first right, keep going till first house rather than bungalows
August 20th TBA
August 27th Rob & Gwyneth Shooter
Rose Cottage, Cat & Fiddle Lane, West Hallam DE7 6HD.
September 3rd TBA
September 10th normal service resumes at Mackervoy’s, Allestree.
* Nb. Followed by a Club open meeting.
Matlock Street O 13 July
There will be street and footpath score event on 13 July with a mass start at 10.30 prompt. Meet at Derbyshire County Council main car park off Bank Road.
DVO Diary Dates
For full details see www.dvo.org.uk. Events and venues can change at short notice. Please confirm before you set off.
|
Sat 5 Jul
|
Darley Parks |
Summer Series Local Event |
|
Wed 9 Jul |
Wirksworth (Stone Centre) |
Training Run & Open Meeting |
|
Sun 13 Jul |
Matlock (County Hall Car Park); BBQ at Macdonalds |
Summer Series Street-O & Barbecue |
|
Wed 16 Jul
|
West Hallam (Jackson's) |
Club Training Night |
|
Wed 23 Jul
|
Ashbourne (Godfree's) |
Club Training Night |
|
Wed 30 Jul
|
Crich (Market Square ) |
Evening Street-O |
|
Wed 6 Aug
|
Etwall (Scout Hut) |
Club Training Night |
|
Wed 13 Aug
|
Wirksworth (Ross's) |
Club Training Night |
|
Sun 17 Aug
|
Bakewell |
Street-O |
|
Wed 20 Aug |
?? |
Club Training Night |
|
Wed 27 Aug
|
West Hallam (Shooter's) |
Club Training Night |
|
Wed 3 Sep |
?? |
Club Training Night |
|
Sun 7 Sep
|
Kedleston |
District Event |
|
Wed 10 Sep
|
Allestree (Mackervoy's) |
Club Training Night |
|
Thu 11 Sep
|
Belper (Johnson's) |
Committee Meeting |
|
Wed 17 Sep
|
Belper (Johnson's) |
Club Training Night |
|
Fri 19 Sep
|
Sawmills (Village Hall) |
Circuits and Keep Fit |
|
Sat 20 Sep
|
Black Rock |
Local Event |
|
Wed 24 Sep
|
Allestree (Mackervoy's) |
Club Training Night |
|
Fri 26 Sep
|
Sawmills (Village Hall) |
Circuits and Keep Fit |
|
Sun 28 Sep
|
?? |
Club Championships |
Event Officials Needed
DVO has a full calendar of events scheduled for the next year. In order to run these events we need members to volunteer as organisers, planners and controllers. Many thanks to those members who have been an official for past events and to those who have volunteered for the coming year.
The table below shows the officials who have been appointed for the next year and, more importantly, the vacancies which we still need to fill. Please consider volunteering to fill a vacancy.
Please give it a try even if you have no previous experience. The C5 events are suitable for first timers as they are small scale. We have experienced club members who will be willing to help you.
URGENT Volunteer needed to plan/organise Bakewell Street Event on 17 August or it will not happen.
|
05-Jul-08 |
Darley Parks |
C5 |
O/P-Val Johnson. |
|
13-Jul-08 |
Matlock Street-O |
S5 |
O/P-Neil Forrest & Helen Finlayson. |
|
30-Jul-08 |
Crich Street-O |
S5 |
O/P-Paul Wright. |
|
17-Aug-08 |
Bakewell Street-O |
S5 |
ORGANISER/PLANNER NEEDED. |
|
07-Sep-08 |
Kedleston |
C4 |
O-Brian Denness, P-Derek & Jen Gale, C-Colin John. |
|
20-Sep-08 |
Black Rock |
C5 |
O-Val Johnson, P-Tony Berwick. |
|
28-Sep-08 |
Club Championship |
X5 |
O/P-Ranald Macdonald. |
|
18-Oct-08 |
Markeaton |
C5 |
O-Val Johnson, P-Michelle Mackervoy. |
|
16-Nov-08 |
Shining Cliff |
C3 |
O-Sal Chaffey, P-John Armstrong, C-Mick Lucking (NOC). |
|
14-Dec-08 |
Whitesprings |
C4 |
O-Paul Beresford, P-Steve Kimberley, C-Brian Ward. |
|
01-Jan-09 |
Melbourne Street-O |
S5 |
O/P-Doug Dickinson. |
|
31-Jan-09 |
Holmebrook |
C5 |
ORGANISER AND PLANNER NEEDED. |
|
08-Feb-09 |
Lindop |
C4 |
ORGANISER, PLANNER AND CONTROLLER NEEDED. |
|
07-Mar-09 |
Stanton Moor |
C4 |
P-Steve Taylor, C-Ranald Macdonald. ORGANISER NEEDED. |
|
10-May-09 |
Linacre |
C4 |
ORGANISER AND PLANNER NEEDED. |
|
16-May-09 |
Ilam Hall |
C5 |
P-Val Johnson. ORGANISER NEEDED. |
|
06-Jun-09 |
Riber Hillside+long-O |
C5 |
O-Paul Wright, P-Dave Chaffey. |
|
14-Jun-09 |
Carsington |
C4 |
P-Dave Skidmore & Ruth Ellis. ORGANISER AND CONTROLLER NEEDED. |
Club Help for Stars
Occasionally, as with Liz Godfree earlier this year, a club member is selected to represent their country in an international event. This is a great honour not only to the individual but for the Club as well. The only downside is that selection can involve unanticipated expense, especially if you were not planning a family holiday in Transylvania, or wherever.
The club’s committee has discussed this and agreed that anyone selected for national representation can make a claim for assistance with expenses. There is no formula as requests will be considered on their merits. Just remember when the call comes to be a star do not hesitate to accept for fear of funding.
N.F.
Letter from America
The orienteering season has started here in the north eastern US, after a long break for the winter. Our first event was the US Middle Distance Championships, about 5 hours driving away in north western New York State . We took a few days off to make it worthwhile, and went to Niagara Falls as part of the same trip, but we were surprised at how many folk made the drive just for the weekend (I guess some people went from the East Midlands to this year’s British Champs in Scotland , just for the weekend?) Big events like this are well organised here, with some nice touches that you don’t see in the UK – childcare for the kids, event based at a forest centre with large hall, proper toilets, plentiful drinking water, power for the event pc’s, soup and bananas at the finish, etc. Standards of maps and the technical course planning has so far been excellent though junior courses remain a little hit and miss – the white course was spot on technically but at 2.8km, rather long! With a short O season, and long drives to events, you get to do a lot of orienteering when you do get to an event. A popular format seems to be a middle distance event on Saturday morning followed by a sprint event in the afternoon (courses around 3 km in the same forest, with spectator loops through the assembly area and lots of short legs). We drove miles and miles for this event, but the forest was pretty similar to those nearer here – mature, runable forests with few trails and hardly any undergrowth, good contour detail and scattered big boulders. Somehow Karen and I both came away with medals from the weekend – both for third places on our respective courses (I’m not going to highlight how many entries there were on some of these courses…)
Last weekend we went to something close to the US equivalent of the JK and White Rose, rolled into one – the West Point weekend. There has been a weekend of orienteering at the West Point military academy in the spring time for many years. Both days are sanctioned “A-meets”, something between a national and a regional event. The weekend offers accommodation on site, at the army barracks being used for assembly/registration etc. This was cheap but terrible – cold, noisy, in need of a good clean; even the roof leaked when it rained. The army cadets organising the event were incredibly polite and professional; it was difficult reconciling the people we met with the standard of accommodation that they are expected to live in while studying at the academy. The competition areas are parts of the huge area of forest around the military academy – the forest here is universally rough underfoot with lots of boulders and crags. I broke two “ducks” this weekend – the first time I’ve orienteered in the rain since arriving in the US, and the first time I’ve been bothered by undergrowth. West Point has large areas of mountain laurel which to the exasperated orienteer looks a lot like rhododendron, and the mapping, while good for rock and contours, was decidedly random when it came to mapping the green stuff.
We managed three events on Saturday – a middle distance race in the morning and a sprint and trail O after lunch! There was a good social in the barracks including a good pasta supper and a demonstration of the army’s lidar system, which gives 3D images of the ground through tree cover from special aerial surveys. Ironically, only one small area of the map was prepared using this system, as the old base map was pretty good, and translating the new aerial pictures into contour lines needed one extra piece of yet-to-be-developed software. I was very impressed though with its ability to plot walls, boulders and even fallen trees in thick forest from aerial “photographs” – must be potential for a powerful new mapping tool here for the future. Sunday morning we had a traditional, classic distance course which with the physical terrain and some iffy mapping of the green, left Karen and I worn out and frustrated. Still, a good weekend overall.
The spring season is fairly short – it gets too hot for running by mid June. We are planning the courses for a local C4 type event just a few miles from home in early June before the summer recess. There are a few multi-day events that folk travel to through the summer – one in Wyoming and another in New Brunswick , Canada (which we still plan to drive up to). The fall season starts up in September and I think I’ve been volunteered to check courses and sites for an “A-meet” that our club is putting on in late October – two days of O in a great forest just north of Springfield, MA (Bart and Homer will be helping on the finish…). With air fares increasing in line with oil prices, I guess this is a bit too far for the DVO weekend away?
Dai Bedwell
DVO go green or a new approach to access payments.
Several years ago when the time came to revisit Bow Woods for orienteering purposes the opportunity was realised to extend the map to the north and include Littlemoor Woods. An approach was therefore duly made to Mr Edward Beaumont of High Leas Farm; the woods being part of the farm.
This wood is owned by Beaumont family and had been in the family since the 1950s. At the turn of the century the last tenant had left and it was proving difficult to find a new incumbent. The woods had been neglected and needed managing. Mr Beaumont not wishing for the farm to be sold off moved in and tried to make a go of the small hill farm. Several small scale attempts to replant the woodland had seen mixed success but from each attempt lessons were drawn and procedures duly adapted.
When asked to use the wood for orienteering after initial surprise (An area full of pits and boulders and crags was surely not ideal for a cross-country sport!) Mr Beaumont agreed for the area to be included in the map. He did not want payment but wanted help with the regeneration of the woodland.
Thus earlier this year a band of willing volunteers under the leadership of Tony Berwick cleared an area of rough open and planted about 70 trees both deciduous and evergreen. The deciduous trees (Beech, Cherry, Oak, Birch) have done well and are showing healthy growth. The evergreens have not fared so well with the Holly being eaten and the Scots Pine looking distinctly unwell.
This project belongs to all of DVO so you are quite welcome to come and help. Now the trees are established (60 odd) the bracken needs to be kept down to help the trees get the best start. (That it helps the orienteer run through the wood is an added advantage). So please look at the e-group and on the website for future dates when we are carrying out this project. There is still much to do and those Scots Pines will need to be replaced.
References: www.highleasfarm.co.uk British Orienteering Magazine: Focus
Sports Personality of the year – so far!
The nomination goes to - Ian Grant.
Having completed a very good blue course at Hardwick Park, Ian was asked to reprise his run-in for the camera. He duly obliged and after checking his hair make-up etc smiled for the camera as he dibbed the finish box once more. Not content a second take was carried out. Unbeknown, however, to all involved, was that each time the finish box was dibbed the SI card chip overwrote the original record thus Ian's overall race time was extended by 2 minutes and several places were lost.
A small price to pay however for being the "face of DVO". Then to cap it all the Matlock Mercury cropped the picture to just a head and shoulders shot.
Caveat Emptor
Deep within the bowels of Derbyshire, I am lying in a tunnel approximately 2 feet in diameter, the bottom half of which is full of filthy-brown water. In order to breathe, I am required to crane my neck into positions it was never designed to but is prevented from by my helmet getting in the way. I cannot turn back because half a dozen people behind me are currently experiencing the same indignities. The only way is forward, crawling, shuffling, wriggling through the cold, clammy puddle lying at the bottom of what is known as the Devil’s Windpipe, the entrance to which warns me not to swim when the water reaches the top of the tunnel as I will not make it to the other end. It does not tell me what I am supposed to do instead.
Hold on, I hear you ask. Isn’t this supposed to be an orienteering magazine full of orienteering-related articles, not the gibbering reminiscences of someone stupid enough to subject himself to the sort of experience Bear Grylls would check into the nearest five star hotel to avoid? Well, yes, but sad to relate, since the last Newstrack, I have spent more time scrabbling underground than orienteering overground. Whether that says more about me or the lack/quality of event served up in the last three months, I will leave you to ponder.
It might have been possible for me to relate the life-affirming experience of the recent Cannock Long-O but for the charming local custom of removing all the signposts so I never actually found the event. Not only that but a three hour drive to, from and around Cannock wrecked all the progress I’d been making on my anger management course.
Anyway, caving and orienteering have much in common. After four and a half hours of the former, I was cold, wet, miserable, bedraggled, thoroughly exhausted and had no idea where I’d been.
All of this was done in the name of Andy Jackson’s stag weekend (so, you see, there is an orienteering connection). If the term, ‘stag weekend’ conjures up images of drink and debauchery in Prague, you have to remember that some of the participants in this one are respected members of society and all of us well past our days of vice and veniality. Another five years, and we’d all’ve just sat round the fire, drinking cocoa and watching a box set of Midsummer Murders.
Of the ten who ventured underground, only three had any real idea of what lay beneath. The rest of us not possessing wet suits – a clue there, possibly – were advised to bring lots of layers, overalls and wellies. In a former life, I worked for the NCB so I dragged out from the inner recesses of the garage, my steel-capped boots and orange boiler suit, on the basis that, if it was good enough for Arthur Scargill, it was good enough for me. The overall (geddit?) effect was spoiled somewhat by the fact that the boiler suit has served as interior-decoration protection for the past twenty years so, rather than looking like a latterday Bevan Boy, I looked more like a walking Jackson Pollack.
The cave chosen was Giant’s Hole, an anonymous opening set into a hillside near Castleton which for its first few hundred yards followed a deceptively easy path until meeting the vertical obstacle of Garlands Pot, a twenty-five foot drop navigable only by a vertical steel ladder produced, magician’s-rabbit-like, for the occasion. Apart from hanging on for dear life, the trick is to keep your centre of gravity as close to the ladder as possible otherwise you end up spinning at a sickening, not to mention embarrassing, speed, going nowhere except in circles. Maybe one day, I’ll learn that trick.
Any feelings of relief at surviving this descent were quickly erased by the next section, the Crab Walk, the reason for the aptly-monikered passage being that you can only squeeze through it sideways, though annoyingly never the same side for long due to constant twists to left and right. This narrow corridor was carved out of the limestone by the stream that for millennia had run where my feet were standing. It was at this point that I realised why the kit list specified wellies. My steel toe caps would have been fine if a large boulder had happened to fall on top of them but as a means of defeating saturation they were useless, so for most of the next four hours my feet were slowly dissolved and numbed by ankle-deep flowing water.
The gap between the two walls was not uniform and more than once I regretted having opted for the Full English Breakfast that morning. At one point the gap was so narrow the only way to get through was to shin up where it was wider. As I did so, my helmet caught against both faces, I slipped and was left swinging from my straps, legs flailing helplessly in the void.
After an hour of this, we met another vertical drop. I was gratified to find that, for ease of passage, a metal stairway had been embedded in the rock. Whoever provided it must have had a strange sense of humour because the descent route coincided with the chute of a waterfall so it was impossible to avoid several gallons of water running down the back of your neck.
We finally reached the lowest point and turned for home, sensibly avoiding a diversion into the ominously-named Chamber of Horrors. The journey down may have been uncomfortable but it had at least been upright - the way back favoured the horizontal direction. In addition to the trial by submersion described at the beginning, we were reduced to a literal crawl along long sections of stony passageways never quite high enough to avoid scraping your back on the ceiling or uncomfortably sharp rocks penetrating your knees.
After negotiating our way back by walking astride a hundred foot vertical drop to the bottom, being lowered on the end of a rope to the bottom before re-ascending the metal ladder through Garlands Pot, we finally stumbled blinking back into the light.
For all sorts of reasons, I wish Andy a long and rewarding marriage.
Graham Johnson
Captain’s Slog
I never thought I would be embarrassed to be a DVO member but this was my unhappy experience when I recently had to withdraw the club from the Derbyshire Footpath Relay due to lack of effort and members willing to step forward and fill just twenty places. This is the first time we have failed to enter a team since the competition was inaugurated over twenty years ago. There once was a time when DVO was able to put two teams in. I appreciate that it was only relatively late that the event was confirmed as going ahead and advance publicity was difficult, but really we should have been able to make a better effort than this.
Although not strictly part of the Captain’s brief, I am co-ordinating White Rose relays for the August Bank Holiday. So far I have two Johnsons, three Lawsons and two Gales. There seems to be fewer attending this year for various reasons. Apologies if I’ve left anyone out that has let me know by word or email, but if I have left anyone out, please let me know soon.
Graham Johnson
STOP PRESS
Gee whiz there goes Liz.!
DVO’s Liz Godfree took the world by storm at the World Masters Orienteering Championships in Portugal recently. In the W60 class of the Sprint O Event Liz won against a strong international field of over 160 competitors. On behalf of the Club Newstrack extends hearty congratulations to Liz.